The Last of Us Creator Reveals Watchmen's Secret Influence

By Nathaniel Brail

HBO released the fifth episode of their live-action adaptation of The Last of Us a littler earlier than expected in order to stay clear of Super Bowl LVII, but it's safe to say that the series is doing some amazing things. The Last of Us has been doing some massive numbers for the series with the first episode being viewed over 22M times and it was quickly the second best premiere on the network after House of the Dragon. It was also announced that the series would be renewed for a second season and it absolutely deserves it. The latest episode of the series features a storyline from the video game, but it's a little different than the source material. In the episode, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Sam (Keivonn Woodward) find a comic book named Savage Starlight, and in the comic book there's a mantra that resonates with what's going on in the series. It turns out that the series creators took inspiration from a certain DC Comics book and it is definitely fitting. During the latest episode of The Last of Us Podcast, series co-creator Craig Mazin revealed that the "endure and survive" line was inspired by Watchmen.

"The whole idea for this comic book was very much inspired by Watchmen. There's a comic book inside the story that reflects back on what's happening in the world," Mazin revealed. "So we wanted to do something similar where there was, like, this sci-fi comic that speaks to the same themes of relationships and love, and all that. And I was like 'It should have a catchphrase that the main hero says.' And I'm like 'What could be kind of like a cheesy catchphrase? Okay, our game is about survival.' And then I just went on thesaurus.com, typed in 'survival' and 'endure' came up, and I'm like 'Endure and survive! There it is!' It's very meaningful but obviously has great thematic resonance."

Mazin, the Emmy-winning creator of HBO's Chernobyl, produced The Last of Us alongside Druckmann, the creator behind the hit video game series. In an interview earlier this year, the writer said The Last of Us is the "greatest" video game story ever told. "It's an open-and-shut case: this is the greatest story that has ever been told in video games," Mazin said in an interview with Empire Magazine. "[Joel and Ellie] didn't shoot anything out of their eyeballs. They were just people. And that, in and of itself, is remarkably rare in games. The fact that they kept it so grounded, and really made you feel – I had never experienced anything like it, and I've been playing video games since 1977."

Joining Pascal (Joel) and Ramsey (Ellie) include Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, and Elaine Miles as Florence. Original game stars Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, having played the part of Ellie and Joel in both video games, are also set to appear.

The first five episodes of The Last of Us are now streaming on HBO Max. The show's first season is set to last nine episodes in total with new episodes rolling out on a weekly basis.

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